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WHERE THE WOMEN AT IN BEST PICTURE?

As the awards season approaches, studios are coordinating their efforts regarding the films they intend to promote for the 97th Academy Awards, and it appears that the best picture category is poised to be a sausage fest. While many features may center around women, these films are all directed by men. Front-runners such as Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, Sean Baker’s Anora, and Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, are a few examples of complex tales about women navigating the world and taking agency in their lives, but are all told through the lens of a male filmmaker.  

Recently it has become clear that only a handful of films from female filmmakers have managed to break the mold when it comes to programming for awards season. In the coming months, will their respective studios give them the time of day to campaign? There is little semblance of a breakthrough in sight as of right now, but hopefully that could change.

During this year’s Cannes film festival, a few female filmmakers were the talk of the town and brought home a few awards. Coralie Fargeat’s gnarly body horror, The Substance, which centers around a washed up superstar (Demi Moore) injecting a drug that allows her to become a younger version of herself (Margaret Qualley), took the award for best screenplay. The film has proved to be a smart pickup for distributor Mubi as it has been getting a lot of critical acclaim and subsequently has become their most profitable flick. However, horror hasn’t been the usual course for Academy voters. There hasn’t been an outright horror flick in the best picture category since Jordan Peele’s Get Out in 2017. And when France tried to be ambitious and select an “out there” movie like Julia Ducournau’s Titane to represent their country in the best international feature category, it was completely shut out of the nominations.

There is recent precedent for Academy members bypassing a country’s submission for best international feature and nominating a film they love regardless. Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall didn’t represent France last year, yet it managed to nab five nominations, including best picture and best director, with Triet being the sole woman filmmaker in the best director category. In the end, Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari won best original screenplay. Although Emilia Pérez may have been selected as the country’s choice for best international feature, it does not imply that The Substance does not have a chance to compete elsewhere.

While word of mouth on The Substance might help its chances and Mubi is relishing in its success as of now, the film might not be taken as admirably by Academy members. The Substance is a direct criticism of the Hollywood system and its treatment towards aging actresses. The film drives down a cathartic, yet, rage-filled route that may alienate voters. Whenever it’s a movie celebrating Hollywood, it’s an easy shoe-in for a BP slot. But The Substance, specifically its blood-soaked climax, will have voters discussing, questioning, like Maddy Perez in Euphoria, “Wait. Is this fucking play about us?” The 11,000 plus member list is full of older voters who may look at it with disdain. 

Then we have Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light, a lyrical romantic drama about loneliness and forbidden love in Mumbai. The two roommates, who might as well be sisters, are played beautifully by relatively unknown actors who may not do much campaigning. Much like The Substance, its own country of India didn’t submit it for their official selection, while it also won a prestigious prize, the Grand Prix, at Cannes. Last year, The Zone of Interest took that same prize and it became a best picture nominee. But the U.K. submitted it for best international feature, which it won. All We Imagine as Light is being released by Sideshow and Janus Films. If given the strong fight they poured into Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car (2021), which wound up with 4 nominations, it will have the best chance of making it into the best picture category.

Other notable titles that have made their festival runs include Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun starring Saoirse Ronan as an alcoholic escaping to the wilds of the Orkney Islands in Scotland to heal. The film premiered at Sundance and played at Telluride, where Saoirse Ronan’s performance won the esteemed Silver Medallion. But Ronan buried its chances by complaining on Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show that she ‘could lose another Oscar for this’ and exclaiming ‘we have very low expectations for ourselves’. Distributor Sony Pictures Classics is more concerned with its efforts to platform constant collaborator Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door as it continues to make its rounds across the festival circuit: premiering at the Venice International Film Festival where it won the Golden Lion, followed by TIFF and NYFF.

There is also Halina Reijn’s delicious and erotic Babygirl. It had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival where Nicole Kidman won the Volpi Cup award for best actress. It then played at TIFF where reception continued to be strong. However it seems its distributor A24 is more focused on the other features on their plate. This is particularly true after their recent acquisitions of Luca Guadingino’s Queer and Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist. The latter title has been geared to become their major awards play, and is on track to hit the best picture bracket. Not to mention Sing Sing which is a lock for Colman Domingo and could still sneak into best picture. Babygirl is positioned to be a provocative counterprogramming on Christmas play, as the film features Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson having an affair…and yes, Kidman is having milk and cookies too. Since Kidman is an esteemed awards darling, a nomination for her performance is in sight. But A24 could decide to go for broke and play it for a BP slot, only time will tell if it will pay off.

 

POWER RANKINGS – BEST PICTURE NOMINEES directed by a woman

 

MOST LIKELY – All We Imagine As Light

UNLIKELY, BUT WOULD BE PUNK AF – The Substance

EXTREMELY UNLIKELY – Babygirl

“VERY LOW EXPECTATIONS” – The Outrun

– Rendy Jones (@Rendy_Jones)

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Rendy Jones (they/he) is a film and television journalist born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. They are the owner of self-published independent outlet Rendy Reviews, a member of the Critics' Choice Association, GALECA, and a part time stand-up comedian. They have also written for Rogerebert.com, Vanity Fair, Them, Teen Vogue, CBC News, and Paste.

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